Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/227

 if he escaped the punishment of the law administered by the official protectors of the man he had killed, he had nothing to apprehend except the vengeance of the latter's relatives, there remains no room for surprise that the course of the passionate controversies of those days was often marked with blood. Rather, indeed, are there grounds for surprise that the public peace suffered so little disturbance under such conditions.